Ties of Blood and Water Life in the Black part 2
by scifiaddict
Summary: A crisis with Inara takes the Crew to Shinon where they encounter some surprises from their pasts.
1. Chapter 1

**Inara noticed a blinking light on her monitor in the shuttle. She apparently had a letter from the guild. She opened it warily; the Guild never contacted a Companion directly without a reason. When she read the first line, she swore. It was exactly what she had been dreading. She was being called before the council for a variety of supposed offenses. Her recent exploits had apparently angered someone. She was to present herself at the Shinon house as soon as possible. Inara was almost shaking with anger. She had done the right thing. She had done a great thing, but the guild was punishing her for it. She took a moment to compose herself and then drafted a reply, figuring that if the guild thought she was going to play their game, they had another thing coming. She had taken on a horde of Reavers, and the council could stick it up their collective asses. She was going to fight this thing with everything she had.**


	2. Chapter 2

"SIMPLE!" Kaylee shouted, striding away from Simon s bunk past the infirmary and into the middle of the rec room.

"I didn t mean it like that, Kaylee," Simon pleaded, following her, buttoning his shirt. He still limped slightly from his injuries sustained in their battle on Mr. Universe s Moon.

Inara covered a smile as she walked into the room. The honeymoon period had apparently ended, and rather predictably, it had been over a careless remark from Simon. She stood in the doorway of the cargo bay and watched for a moment.

"Well, how in the name of Hades am I supposed to take that exactly?" Kaylee huffed as she whirled around to face Simon.

"I just meant that I don t have to explain myself to you and that you don t care about how your clothes look or about things like that," Simon explained earnestly.

"So, what? I m so simple that I just don t care about anything?" Kaylee volleyed back.

Inara s eyes drifted over to Kara and Sam who were entwined on the couch and clearly entertained by the display.

"I just mean that you're not..." Simon struggled for the words. "Shallow and materialistic and that you care about people and the important things and...and..."

Kaylee melted and took a step back towards Simon. "Stop before you say something stupid again," she said. Then she closed the gap between them and kissed him.

Inara smiled now, happy as the two of them maneuvered back towards the cabins, still kissing.

Kara grinned and Sam chuckled. "Communication: It s the cornerstone of every relationship," he joked.

Kara laughed slightly and then said, "It's never as easy as it sounds, though, is it?" She looked pointedly at her husband.

"Those two are champions at miscommunication. You two certainly seem beyond that," Inara commented.

Kara s grin became slightly more ironic. "We ve had our moments".

Sam looked at his watch and said, "Well, we must be getting close to Shinon. We should get to our action station." Sam stood up and Kara followed suit, stretching.

Inara noticed the abrupt change of subject. The two seemed rather closed off about their past. Like Mal, they seemed to prefer to leave who they were behind them. They were friendly enough, but they also seemed guarded as if they didn t quite trust the situation yet. She supposed the fact that no one was supposed to know about the baby yet didn t help, although she had noticed several tell-tale signs, and she wondered if Simon had noticed the same. She almost wanted to say something as she followed them towards the bridge but then Mal was standing in the kitchen, grabbing something that looked like it might be coffee.

"We getting close?" Mal asked.

"We should be, so long as the auto nav isn t leading us into a sun," Kara remarked.

Mal followed in behind them. "We should start listening to local radio chatter as soon as we get close enough."

Mal took a sip from his mug before continuing as they entered the bridge. The fake beacon and registry that Fanty and Mingo provided for this expedition looks good but I still want to be on the look out for trouble. "Officially, the Alliance just wants to go back to pretending we don t exist, but I still don t trust them any more than I d trust Jayne with my share of our latest take."

"I'm sure we won t be here more than a few days," Inara broke in, somewhat defensively.

"I know. I just like to take care where the Alliance is concerned," Mal said, raising a hand to reassure her. He took another sip of coffee before adding, "Thanks to the political liefest going on here this week, they ll be plenty of folks from the rim about and anyways there's plenty of Fireflies in my sky."

Kara smiled as she disengaged the auto-nav. "Well, we should be in comm. range in about thirty seconds, so Longshot here should fire the receiver."

"Why do I have to listen for the chatter while you do all the fun stuff?" Sam asked.

"Because you got to have all the fun last trip," Kara shot back. "Besides, with all the traffic around here, this is a tricky landing for me, and I ve done quite a few planetary approaches."

Mal smiled down at Kara and said, "Just take her easy. I like my ship in one piece."

Kara grinned. "Don t worry, Captain. I love a challenge."

"I should contact Mother and let her know exactly when we ll be arriving," Inara said as she swept over to the comn station.

"We shouldn t be more than half an hour landing with the traffic," Kara called from behind her as Inara punched in the familiar digits.

Inara stood up straight and smiled broadly as her mother's face came onto the screen. "Hello, Mother."

"Hello, Inara Serra," her mother replied, smiling as well.

"We re just entering the atmosphere here so I should arrive at Shinon House within the hour."

"Wonderful. I cannot wait to see you," Inara s mother said sweetly.

'I ll bet you can t, Mother' Inara though. It was obvious to Inara that underneath, her mother was furious at her, which was just as well since Inara was just as angry. Inara was sure they would have a very interesting conversation when she arrived.


	3. Chapter 3

Shopping was never one of Kara s favorite activities and the ability to do so in one of the biggest Triplexes in the Core with a wad of cash from her last job with Sam wasn t improving the experience. Kara still wasn t sure if she liked this Tri-Plex," a large glass stacked pyramid that was a more sophisticated version of Persephone s markets. For one, it was eerily clean and for another, the prices were insane. The few odds and ends they d both needed for clothes had been dirt cheap on the lower levels but the prices went in the other extreme further up. Up here she kept feeling like someone was going to come along and chase them out, but Sam had said it might be their last chance to see something like this for a while and for once, they could afford it.

Kara still wasn t sure how they had wound up looking at baby stuff, but she knew it was somehow Sam s fault. Still, she found herself fingering a yellow jumper and getting the same shiver of excitement that she used to associate with getting into a viper. She had never been one to coo over baby stuff, but it was odd now thinking about actually needing it. Since hearing she was pregnant, they had spent so much time reacting and running, it was only really sinking in lately how much everything was going to change. Logistically, a lot had changed already, but it still shocked her to think that she, Kara frak up Thrace, was going to be responsible for a real live baby. She wanted this baby. She knew it the second she heard the news. It was the thing she had wished for more than once while she had watched Sam fight for his life after the mutiny. It started with Kacey, she knew that, but watching Sam slipping away had made her sure of it and of many other things.

"How about this?" Sam asked, holding up a deep red silk dress.

"Well for one I m not sure if our son would like it much if that s what we're having," Kara said, walking over. "And for another, it costs about half of what we..'" Kara trailed off when she realized she recognized the man walking past the window.

It was the last person she expected, but she would know him anywhere. It was Lee Adama. Instinctively, she ducked out of the shop and chased after him. If he was here, she wanted to know the reason. Sam dropped the dress and followed a step behind. "Lee," she called out, knowing it was all she needed to say.

"Kara?" Lee asked, clearly as shocked as she was. "What are you doing here?"

"Shopping," Kara shrugged, stopping awkwardly two feet in front of Lee. Suddenly, she remembered how they had parted on bad terms.

"Hey," Sam added coldly. He clearly remembered Lee calling him a coward for running out on the colony .

"Me too," Lee grinned awkwardly. "I got tired of everyone staring at my outfits so I figured I should buy some for the conference, which is really the reason I m here. On Shinon, I mean. I m representing the colony. Well, me and Tory anyway."

"Yeah, well we just got paid and we needed a few things so we came up here to check it out," Sam said.

"We were just gonna grab something to send back for Nicky and Hera," Kara added, cutting Sam off before he could tell Lee their news. After everything, he deserved to hear it privately; she owed him that much. Plus it made him less likely to tell the whole colony out of spite. They still weren't sure if they ever wanted the extremist elements on either side to know about this baby.

"That s great," Lee said, smiling oddly again. "I m kinda in a hurry, I have to get back. How about we meet up later to catch up?"

Sam nodded. "Sounds good. Do you have anything so we could give you our ship's wavelength?"

"Sure," Lee replied, handing over a pad.

"We ll see you later," Kara nodded as Lee took back his pad and left. Sam and Kara exchanged a look as he left and then went back to their shopping.


	4. Chapter 4

Inara still felt vaguely uneasy in this room which was odd considering everything about it was designed to put a person at ease. From the rich drapes to the running water fountain to the music drifting in from the courtyard, it was supposed to be warm and welcoming. But for Inara, it was always her mother s room and always felt as chilly as a winter wind.

"So," her mother started carefully, "How are things on your ship?"

Inara all but rolled her eyes. "You know perfectly well everything that s happened on my ship, Mother. That s why I m here. So how about we dispense with the superfluous pleasantries and discuss what you actually want to talk about?"

Julia Serra rose an eyebrow. "So, I see you have acquired some rough manners out there on the rim," she replied dryly.

"I have always refused to suffer foolishness, Mother. I just have greater license to express it out where people have little time for it themselves."

"From the sounds of things, those people out there are nothing but foolish, expecting The Alliance to help them with every little thing," her mother sniffed.

"The Alliance never helped anyone unless it suited their ends," Inara replied harshly. Inside she thought to herself, 'Buddha, save me, I sound like Mal.'

"Let us not argue about politics. It's beside the point right now. We should be talking about your career, such as it is."

"My career is fine, Mother. I have expanded my client base and my horizons a dozen times over," Inara answered proudly.

"So you posit that life amongst common thieves is good for you?" her mother replied, incredulous.

"I think living a life of my own choosing is what s best for me. Yes," Inara answered. She almost wanted to laugh. Her mother s distaste was obvious and Inara had expected nothing less.

"You could choose anything you wanted here on Shinon," her mother scoffed.

"Only if you approve, though. That s the catch. I couldn t live with anymore," Inara replied, "and I didn t come here to be insulted, either. So you can tell me what the council wants or tell me how you feel, for once. I have a hearing to prepare for and a thousand other things I could be doing right now if you are just going to waste my time."

Her Mother sighed, stood up from her chair, and faced the window. "Someone higher up is pushing the Guild. I don t who. They don t really want your license, they just want you to fall in line."

"What do they want me to do, come back to Shinon?" Inara asked, uncertain. She had a sinking feeling she knew the answer already.

"They would be satisfied if you went back to the training house you were at before all of this. The Guild simply cannot allow itself to be associated in any way with the infamous Malcolm Reynolds." She spoke simply this time, devoid of all emotion.

"So you're saying I have to leave Serenity or I have to give up my membership?" Inara asked quietly. Her mother simply nodded.


End file.
